Like a singular fish in a school of fish, you can rest assured that you are safer the more cyclists there are around you. That this might be the most important factor in your safety is the controversial conclusion of a recent study.
Science Daily reports on the study of this virtuous cycle from the University of New South Wales: the more people that cycle the safer it is for everyone. Dr Julie Hatfield, an injury expert from UNSW: "The likelihood that an individual cyclist will be struck by a motorist falls with increasing rate of bicycling in a community."
In fact, they found that "a community that doubles its cycling numbers can expect a one-third drop in the per-cyclist frequency of a crash with a motor vehicle."
The chicken and egg part of this is this: "And the safer cycling is perceived to be, the more people are prepared to cycle." So just how do we then get more people to bike?
The effect is independent of improvements in cycling-friendly laws and better infrastructure. This does not mean, however, that cycling-friendly laws and better infrastructure don't have a positive effect on the safety of cyclists. You can think of the safety-in-numbers effect as being a positive feedback cycle: the more cycling-friendly laws and bike-specific infrastructure, the more people perceive it is safe and start cycling thus increasing the safety of all cyclists in both a direct and indirect manner.
Cyclists consistently prefer to bike in areas with better bike infrastructure that doesn't require them to have "special equipment and training, physical fitness, and the courage and willingness to battle with motor vehicles on streets without separate bike lanes or paths".
Of course, it is possible that through some really effective media campaign the City could convince enough people that cycling is fun, safe, and efficient that they wouldn't have to spend any more on infrastructure in order to get this virtuous cycle started. I just don't think that this is going to happen. Instead I'm going to wait until a UBC study on cycling injuries in Vancouver and Toronto is finished before forming any strong opinions on the matter. They will be interviewing 600 Canadian cyclists and studying the sites of the crashes or collisions for detailed analysis.
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